Category: Via Brands

NARS New Order Highlighting Blush ($29.00 for 0.16 oz.) is described as a “sheer highlighter with golden shimmer.” It’s a pale, cool-toned, blue-based pink with golden sparkle and a golden shimmer-sheen finish. MAC Veronica’s Blush is warmer, less sparkly. NARS Undress Me is a grayer pink and has silver sparkle (that is more like glitter in particle size).

Despite NARS’ great success with Albatross, their other Highlighting Blushes have a high dosage of sparkle and shimmer that doesn’t bind with the underlying powder/blush color, so a lot of the sparkle gets lost, looks unflattering on the skin, and sometimes travels for parts unknown. New Order has a powdery, almost gritty, texture, as a result of all the sparkle that just seems to sit on top at all times. If this had no sparkle but just a level of golden sheen, I think it would work better.

The pigmentation is as described–sheer–and will add some pink on lighter complexions (like a blush) while perhaps brightening on deeper complexions. When it blends out, it’s mostly just sparkle/shimmer and the pink coloring fades away. This shade wore six and a half hours, and then I only saw remnants of sparkle. This is my second pan of New Order, and while the texture was still on the powdery side, it wasn’t nearly as dry as my original New Order.

Chanel touts their lacquer as “long-wearing, high-shine, chip-resistant” while applying “evenly without streaking.” Eastern Light doesn’t apply evenly, and it is riddled with streakiness. It’s one of the better-applying white cream polishes I’ve tried, but it’s not, by any stretch of the imagination, streak-free. The consistency is just slightly on the thicker side, and it self-leveled to an extent but not completely. After two coats, it was mostly opaque, except where areas of heavy streakiness, then the second coat did not cover it entirely. I think three coats would hide the underlying streakiness, but it does get a little thick to wear and will take awhile to dry down fully. It has a great high-gloss finish, but the streaks make this a major no-go–not at $30.

M•A•C’s love affair with lips has led to the launch of a new M•A•C masterpiece. Introducing MAC Mineralize Rich Lipstick – it’s larger in size and scope and lavishes lips with nutrient-rich moisture. Featuring a luxurious formula and gorgeous colour, enhanced with a mineral moist complex that provides lips with nourishment and lasting hydration. Lightweight colour glides on with ease for an intense bright with shade retention.

M•A•C expands its innovative collection of foundations with a gorgeous NEW formula full of extraordinary benefits. Its lightweight lush texture feeds skin instantly with mineral-rich nourishing hydration, all day long. The uniquely creamy fluid, ideal for dry skin, blends beautifully, featuring shea butter, emollients and conditioning extracts to keep the face soft and supple. Its combination of powders creates an optical blurring effect that virtually diminishes imperfections and fine lines for a more even tone.

Disney Jasmine Storylook Palette ($55.00 for 0.79 oz.) contains both eyeshadows and cheek products all housed in a slide-out palette. I’ve split the review into two parts, and this one features the remaining five eyeshadows as well as the blush and bronzer. You can read part one for the first ten eyeshadows.

Lapis is a darkened blue with a hint of green (just enough to make it slightly teal around the edges) and a mostly matte finish. Like Blue Oasis, it was incredibly powdery, which contributed to sheerer color and excessive fall out. This color was more buildable, but it is still fast to fade. Milani Olympian Blue is bluer, brighter. Illamasqua Burst is tealer. Urban Decay Haight is close in color but frosted.

Mystical Wonder is a medium-dark violet purple with blue undertones and a frosted finish. It had so-so pigmentation–not totally sheer but definitely not opaque. It was a little dry in texture. Urban Decay Blue Bus is darker. MAC Blue Orbit is bluer and lighter.

Rajah is a brightened, medium orange with a softer, golden oraneg shimmer-sheen over a pearly finish. It had fantastic color payoff with a soft, smooth feel and application. MAC Chessa is quite a bit lighter. MAC Fresh Daily isn’t as bold/bright. MAC Rule is more muted and matte.

Arabian Sunset is an orange-red with a golden sparkle and sheen. This shade was powdery, and the gold sparkle doesn’t bind with the actual color, so it mostly ends up underneath the eye or stuck between your brush’s bristles. Guerlain Coup de Foudre #2 is lighter. Guerlain Terra Azzurra #3 is redder. MAC Dynamo is more muted.

Bazaar is a warm-toned, medium brown with strong orange/tan undertones and a satin finish. It had decent pigmentation but was somewhat powdery. Inglot #357 is darker and matte. MAC Soft Brown is less orange and matte. MAC Tete-a-tint is a bit lighter and matte. Urban Decay Beware is a touch darker, less warm-toned.

Thrilling Chase is a reddened plum with very subtle golden shimmer that translates as a barely-there sheen. It has more of a satin-finish as a result. The color payoff is amazing–super intense and rich–with a soft, buttery texture that’s very blendable. NARS 413 BLKR is a cream product, but it is still rather similar (no gold shimmer). NARS Seduction is a touch darker, but if you go with a lighter application, it’s hard to tell on. bareMinerals The Indecent Proposal is more plum, less reddened. MAC Stratus is a touch more muted and has a stronger sheen. It’s also similar to NARS Mounia, just warmer, and to NARS Oasis, which is slightly less red (more plum).

Golden Sands is a warm, orange-toned, medium-dark brown with a golden-copper frosted finish. Like the blush, the color was nicely pigmented, and the texture was soft, smooth, and easily to apply and blend. It is very frosted, though, and as a result, does emphasize pores and imperfections in skin texture. I see this being a love/hate product for some, since it may be too orange/warm for them. Wet ‘n’ Wild Carnaval in Rio is darker, less shimmery. Estee Lauder Topaz Chameleon is darker, browner. Guerlain Terracotta Mosaic browner, less shimmery.

For an in-depth review on the products, please refer to part one. As a summary: the palette is good but not fantastic–Sephora didn’t knock this one out of the park, and for me, the Cinderella Storylook palette was better and more consistent. Jasmine’s palette suffered from some powderiness in a handful of shades, which then created problems with color payoff, wear (fading), and/or blendability.

Disney Jasmine Storylook Palette ($55.00 for 0.79 oz.) contains both eyeshadows and cheek products all housed in a slide-out palette. I’ve split the review into two parts, and this one features the first ten eyeshadows (and so the second part will focus on the remaining five eyeshadows as well as the blush and bronzer).

Blue Oasis is a soft, bluish aqua with a matte finish. This shade is very, very powdery; though soft and finely-milled, it was terribly powdery and, as a result, was both sheer in color and more challenging to use. It definitely requires clean-up after using on the lid, even when gently patting the color on, a lot of it ends up underneath the eyes and on the lashes. You’ll really need to use a creamy white base under this to get it to pop. NARS South Pacific #1 is darker and much bluer. NARS Debbie Harry #4 is just a smidgen darker. Sugarpill Mochi is similar but a bit darker.

Abu is a dark bronze-shimmered brown with a frosted, slightly metallic finish and soft warm undertones. It had good color payoff, and it applied fairly smoothly and evenly. Urban Decay Deeper is a touch warmer. MAC Bronze has stronger red undertones. Inglot #409 is smoother.

Ali Ababwa is a matte, pale beige with neutral undertones. It had good color payoff (though it’s hard to tell, since it’s very-nearly my skin color!), and it will work well as a brow highlighter and blending color. Urban Decay Foxy is a touch lighter. MAC Vanilla is lighter. Inglot #355 is lighter.

Master is an eggplant purple with strong red undertones and a soft, frosted finish. The texture was slightly dry, so the color wasn’t 100% opaque, but it was still blendable and workable on the eye. I recommend using a soft, fluffy brush with this one. OCC Overlook is more frosted but very close. Guerlain Boulevard du Montparnasse #6 has a satin finish. Inglot #446 is darker and more plum.

Cosmic is a shimmering, light-medium orange brown with warm, copper undertones. It had solid pigmentation and applied smoothly. Urban Decay Chopper is a touch darker. Urban Decay Penny Lane is very similar.

Cave of Wonders is a brightened golden rod yellow with a satin finish. MAC Juiced is darker and less yellow. It had good pigmentation, but it was slightly powdery and did have quite a bit of powder that kicked up in the pan and that fell on lashes during application. However, I didn’t have any problems with the color fading during wear. Sephora Banana Split is yellower. MAC Sunny Outlook is lighter. Inglot #323 is yellower and matte.

I have to admit, I went into this palette with higher expectations than I did going into the Cinderella Storylook palette, so I thought that when I felt a bit disappointed by the powderiness of some of the shades in the Jasmine palette that perhaps I remembered my experience wrong with Cinderella. I re-read my review, but the issues I had with this palette were not ones that were prevalent in the Cinderella palette.

It’s a good palette, overall, but there were a few shades that were problematic and did lower the excitement for the palette as a whole. Blue Oasis was the biggest offender with its powdery texture, sheer color, and major fall out during application and significant fading while worn (it was noticeably faded after six hours, half-way gone after eight hours). Shades like Trust Me and Friend Like Me were slightly less pigmented than they looked in their pans. Lapis wasn’t quite as bad as Blue Oasis, but it was significantly powdery and more prone to fade and sheer out on the lid. The majority of the shades wear for eight hours without fading or creasing, but the ones just mentioned were the shades I had trouble with. The shades that were most noteworthy for their quality were Abu, Ali Ababwa, Cosmic, Sand in the Glass, and Rajah.

Thrilling Chase and Golden Sands may or may not be the kind of blush/bronzer you love, but they both worked well and had incredible color intensity and blendability. My first thought when I swatched Golden Sands was that it was going to be much, much too orange/shimmery for many as a bronzer, but I imagine it would look nice as an eyeshadow. Both products lasted eight hours with very minimal fading along the edges.

The overall combination of colors in the palette is interesting, and some shades didn’t have a lot of potential dupes–like Blue Oasis, Cave of Wonders, Mystical Wonder, and Arabian Sunset. Even shades like Friend Like Me and Master didn’t have dead-on dupes. There are some texture issues with this palette, but once applied and cleaned up, most of them don’t extend to the wear portion of the program, which is certainly worth noting.